The Open Studio on Saturday was a success (as measured by modest expectations) 20 –30 people showed up, some of them because of the flyers, others because of the sign Jer and the Honda put in place at the turn in the road.

I even got a painting done in the morning before the confusion started. Then I played around with the panoramic sculpture piece, which Sunday I turned to the wall, along with the other panorama. (Turning to the wall means that covering over with white paint is coming nigh). Neither of those pieces was working as a painting, although the sculpture piece had its funny ideas. But the Saturday painting and the two Sunday ones, which aren’t quite finished, went well.

And Sunday I got a present in the form of a second easel, on casters, so it can be moved around to catch the best light in the studio. David, a board member, and Todd and Christy, carpenters from Las Vegas who seem to enjoy being part of the Goldwell project, came up to work on the cistern. They graciously went to town (Beatty, I mean) and collected the easel from the Goldwell House garage; Suzanne had given me permission to take it to the Studio but the Honda bulked. Too big to swallow, I guess. Anyway, here’s Christy, in the truck with the easel:

She is as wonderful as she looks. And here are David and Todd.

They even screwed in the casters nice and tight and carried the easel into the studio for me. I am old enough that I scarcely even apologize for letting the strong backs (Christy and David, I mean) do the work.

Here are the three paintings from the weekend:

Approaching the Funeral Mountains, AM, 18 x 24″, oil on board.

I’m playing games with time and light (or time and light are playing games with me) and what shows up when on the desert when and how. These mountains to the west become almost invisible, at one with the larger range behind them, as the day goes on. But in the morning, they stand out and glow.

Bare Mountains, PM, 18 x 24, oil on board. And these mountains,to the east, which lie behind a giant tailings slope from an open pit mine, turn to blues and grays as well as the red spots in the evening. This painting needs a bit more work — it’s more abstract than I’ve been doing and I want to punch up that aspect of it a bit as well as adjusting the color. But it’s a decent counterpart to the Am one.

And then, because I had time, I did a small one of the approach to Beatty as it had been appearing before daylight savings time arrived:

As we have been approaching Beatty toward evening, the ground has been in shadow and the mountains behind Beatty glow golden. Again, more work is needed on the painting — the shadow isn’t quite right, and the golden mountain will be glazed with Indian yellow, I think, which will charge it. I have to work from a photo on this because time, that old trickster, has passed, and with it, the light has changed.